Mexico City (Distrito Federal) and Flight to MVD

All of my DF pics can be found here DF Pics.

I fully intended to write about my experience in DF before I left.  However, the situation did not lend itself to that opportunity.  I will explain further down why and will try to keep this in chronological order.

One of the many waterless fountains throughout the city

Glorieta Angel.  The Angel fell to the ground in a fairly recent earthquake but kept the wreath in hand when the rest of the Angel shattered.

This church is falling over.  Apparently DF was surrounded by water like a moat and had frequent floods which makes the soil pretty terrible for structures like this.

Pretty cool concept that I think would work great in the states (Mainly California)

DF is much more artistic than I ever expected.  There are many benches throughout the city that are not standard such as this one.

This may be the coolest statue I have ever seen. 

Anthropology Museum.  This is a huge roof only supported by the column in the middle.  The rest of the museum was stupendus. 

Monumento Revolución at night

View from atop the Monumento Revolución.  The elevtor ride to the top was free for some reason.

Templo Mayor.  You can see the layers of the Templo.  The Indios did not bother taking down the wall.  They just built right over the top to stay in proportion with the magnitude of the Empire.

I walked in the back of this museum without paying the 50 peso entry fee.  If you act as if you should be there, the security guards don`t expect anything.

View from atop the Torre Latinamerica.  The photo is overexposed so the city is nowhere near this bright.  At any given moment there are at least 5 planes waiting to land.

This Korean guy was in my room at the hostel.  He rode his bike from Seattle to Alaska then down the Rockies to Cancun then back to Mexico City.  His blog is in Korean but probably infintely more interesting than mine. http://blog.naver.com/bbungsam

I basically spent four days doing all of the touristy things in town.  I failed to see the Teotihuacan Ruins, but I feel like I did most of the other major things.  I found nightlife in Zona Rosa, La Condeza, some random spots along Insurgentes, Zocalo, and unknown places that I was shown by locals.

I went to a random house party.  One of the hosts was a matador and he brought out this cape.  They are substantially heavier than expected.  They feel like the lead cape you wear when getting an X-Ray.  They are also stiff judging by its ability to stand on its own.

This is the first accurate rendition of Jesus I have seen in Mexico.

DF has three profession futbol teams: Pumas, Cruz Azul, and Americas.  It just so happened that Pumas and Azul were playing each other on Saturday.  I walked up Insurgentes Sur from the Univerisity to Estadio Azul and entered the grounds on the Pumas side of the stadium.

Pumas Fans

 I walked around to the other side of the stadium and bought the cheaper tickets for the home team, Azul.

Azul Fans.

Once inside, I really got into the spirit of things. There were drumbeats, incessant yelling, and a general roudiness that was addictive.  I was learning all sorts of cuss words and using them equally as the young guys next to me.  I was disappointed that the stadium was not sold out.  I don`t know how a city of this size with rabid fans can`t pony up the money to attend a game of in-city bitter rivals.

This was before the start of the game.  Notice the line of police in riot gear.

When Azul scored the first goal, fans started to climb the fence and shake it like tearing down a goal post.   I guess the barbed wire fence actually deterred the fans from going onto the field, or maybe it was the police pulling them down.  At half time Azul had a 2-0 lead, and I figured the game was in the bag.  Late in the second half, the score was 2-3 with Azul losing.  Every single Pumas fan was taking part in a unison jumping dance as their team took the lead.  At that point, I wished I bought tickets on the Pumas side.  However, with about two minutes left in regulation, Azul put in the equalizer which really sent the place in pandimonium and was glad again to be an Azul fan.  The game ended 3-3.

As I was heading to the Metro (which is only 3 Pesos or less than 25 cents and has rubber wheels so it is quiet - it also is hot as a pistol during the dead of winter so I can`t imagine it during the summer), I get questioned by some Pumas fans.  I immediately changed my loyalty to Pumas as to reduce a potential confrontation.  ``Of course Pumas looked better than Azul.  Yea, Azul was lucky to get that tie.``  In any event, I find myself surrounded with new `friends` in a bar called No Name.  This was Pumas territory and thought I one of the skinheads was going to start a fight with me when he pulled out my Azul noise maker out of my back pocket.  We left that place and headed to La Hija de los Apaches for Pulque.

The owner is on the dollar bill.  Pulque is really gross plain, but is okay with fruit flavors.  It`s sorta like drinking chalk dust in a thick liquid.  I imagine it is a macho thing to drink it.

The place is large and fully packed, and I am the only gringo.  The band is rocking out which diminshed my feeble Spanish skills.  Luckily a 1.2 liter bottle of beer is 35 pesos.  Someone who I met earlier in the week recognized me, and we chatted for a bit allowing the Pumas Skinheads to take a break from their line of questioning.  The pulque place closed at 10, and I was forced to continue on terrorizing a handful of other places with the Pumas fans until I Irish Goodbyed in a taxi to my hostel only to wake up just in time for my flight to Panama City and then to Montevideo. 

I want to say that not everything in DF was great.  I felt like more people were trying to rip me off in DF than any place I had ever been.  I would pay for something then they would come back with different bills than I had used trying to get more money out of me.  The taxis were rabid and had no shame to drive in circles.  Additionally I woke up every morning with major congestion due to massive amounts of pollution inhalation.   Many locals told me about the danger of DF, but I personally never saw it.  However, I believe it is there, and I was lucky.

After waiting in a brutally long Copa Airlines line, paying a $75 baggage fee, then watching a lady tear apart my huge nearly packed box, I am walked through the MEX airport wondering when I will have to tell my story about not getting the visa in Tijuana.  Not so.  The Copa ticket taker just took it as I boarded the plane and never even looked at it.  I could have skipped the hassle in Loreto and filled out a blank sheet of paper at the airport to save $126.  As the plane from Panama City to Montevideo was taxing down the runway, the Capitan tells us that we have to disembark as the left engine won`t start.  I am thinking I want a new plane, but I am quit happy that I have three seats all to myself.  Back in the Panama City terminal, I go to get some food at a busy restaurant.  All of the waitresses have a terrible disposition, and I theorize it is because Panamanians have an identity crisis as they don`t even have their own currency since they use the US$.

I arrive in Montevideo and the customs lady never asks me a question.  She just hastily stamps my passport like her pay is proportional to the speed at which she can get people through the line.  I make a mess putting my bike together in the airport, and fortunately everything seems to be in working order.  Either I did an excellent packing job (not likely) or the bike realy was worth the $1000 price tag.  I just rode to the centro and will take a hostel here (my new Brooks Saddle is amazing).  Apparently there is a Carnival Festival in town Feb 3 and 4 so I will stick around for that.  I will try to make trips to Puente del Este and Colonia in the meantime.

Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo, and New Plans

You can check out all of my Gto and DH photos here Gto and DH.

The capital of the state of Guanajuato is Guanajuato.   I have visited most all of the towns within 100 KM of San Miguel de Allende, and Guanajuato (Gto) is the only one that I want to write about.  I only spent two days in town but thoroughly enjoyed every minute.  I borrowed a friend's motorcycle to get there, which was an adventure in itself.

As I am following the signs to the centro of Gto, I find myself going though a labyrinth of underground tunnels.  As I understand, these tunnels were built for silver mining.  There is silver mining because the town was built where an astroid collided with the earth and deposited a bunch of silver.

I took this photo on foot as riding a motorcycle and snapping photos is much more difficult than on a bicycle

I make it to the centro and try to find parking and a hotel.  I obviously stick out really badly because I had two hawks immediately descend upon me trying to help me locate a hotel.  I just kept telling them, "no entiendo" or I don't understand until they gave up even though I could tell mostly what they were saying.  I ended up in a hotel affixed to a parking garage at 250 Pesos for both per night.  The passage way to the room was daunting as there were three separate places where my head was in danger if I wasn't paying attention as I walked.  In any event, I was staying directly across from the Mercado Hidalgo where locals buy all kinds of things ranging from coffee mugs to raw chicken.

Photo taken from the upstairs catwalk.

I basically roam around town looking for places to eat.  I smell some really good food and head into Antik Cafe.  In the cafe, I meet an American waitress and ask what is that good smell coming from the restaurant.  She says it is the taco stand behind the restaurant.  In any event, it was too late to leave as I already had a drink.  She drew me a map of the places to go for the night when a younger Mexican girl overhears our conversation and scratches out some of the American's suggestions and replaces them with others.  I follow the map around and end up in some interesting places.  The first place I enter is called FBI.  This is a cantina, but this one had some regular looking college people in it.  There were of course the older working women sitting at a table with a man that was morbidly obese.  I did not snap a photo of the guy as that is probably not cool in this establishment.  There was a urinal against the wall at the entrance of the bar.  I felt obliged to wait around until I needed to pee to have the chance to basically pee in front of the entire bar and no one think twice about it.  Beers at FBI were 12 pesos.

Sign in the back of FBI

I wandered around trying to make sense of the makeshift map.  Two of the places on the list were pretty dead, and I decided to make one final push to the last place on the list which was at the edge of the centro.  The place was called Bar Fly, and it felt like a cantina that Bob Marley would go to.  The air was hot, thick, and difficult to breath.  The music was reggae all night long.  However, the place was crowded and beers were cheap.

They turned off the lights and I took a shot called the Cucaracha

The next morning I went to the Mummy Museum.  I would not recommend this to anyone as I left there feeling queasy and disrespectful.  You are not supposed to take photos in there, but of course I did to share them.  There was a section of infant mummies that really made me want to get out of there.  Luckily, the museum only takes five minutes to walk through when you hoof it like I did.

I got back to the centro and checked out the Diego Rivera museum.  I did not see any art I recognized, but his art was much more varied than I ever knew.  Diego had art from realism to cubism and all sorts in between.  I tried to take some photos but every single room with his art had a person staring there waiting for me to do something wrong.

This was the only photo from the Diego Rivera Museum

I spent the rest of the day roaming around trying to see all of the touristy things I could fit in one day.

From the top of a staircase looking back at the Centro 

Don Quixote

Random model in a photo shoot

Pipila - This guy carried a boulder on his back to stop the Spaniard's bullets then burned down the door so the Mexicans could invade and overtake the fortress during the Independence.

View from Pipila to the left

View from Pipila to the center.  The White building in the sun is the University of Guanajuato.  The green area in the shade is the Jardin.

View from Pipila to the right

I made friends with some people that had a car.  The car owner gave me a night tour of Gto for about three hours.

The city at night from the Mirador

We went to the Guanajuato Grille for our late night festivities.

This was a Tuesday night before school is in session.  I am told that it is crazy busy on the weekends.

Me trying to do the Headless Captain Morgan stance.

I left in the morning and headed up into the mountains to get to Dolores Hidalgo, the birthplace of Mexican Independence.  The temperature in the mountains was about 20 degrees cooler than in Gto.  I was a total popsicle by the time I made it to DH.  The town was small but full of history.  However, I wasn't in a history mood so I just snapped a few photos and headed back to San Miguel.

Padre Hidalgo

CHANGE OF PLANS -------------------------

I have been living in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico since Dec 16, 2010.  I will take a bus from San Miguel on Jan 17, 2011 to Mexico City.  Later I will fly to Montevideo, UR on Jan 23 and continue my trip from there but riding north this time.